The television show follows the efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, based in Washington state. Now fans are wondering: If Japan stops whaling, what happens to the show?

“Really we’re just kind of following the news,” executive producer Jason Carey told the New York Times. “If the (Japanese ship) truly turns back and goes back to Japan, then we’ll just go back to port and we’ll be done shooting for the season. If it turns back and starts whaling again, we’ll continue filming.”

The show’s season’s never have predictable schedules, he added. The first three seasons contained 7, 11 and 13 episodes respectively.

The Sea Shepherd vessels conduct an annual campaign of harassment against the Japanese whaling ships, trying to foul their propellers, throwing bottles of noxious chemicals on their decks and follow them closely to prevent the loading of whale carcasses.

It’s unlikely that Japan will stop whaling all together, so that topic will probably still be a major theme in future seasons of “Whale Wars.” But it’s worth noting the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has recently turned some attention to dolphin hunting in Taiji, Japan.